The Misfit company

Kieran speaks quietly but passionately and purple fire seems to dance behind his eyes, whether caused by the fervor of devotion or madness is likely up to the listener

Slug, you did well today. You fought bravely against those who opposed us even though some were your former clan and perhaps kin. You have taken the first steps on the path to the salvation of the world. It is time for you to hear the tale of what it is you are fighting for.

In times almost forgotten, the god of death called Nerull sought to impose himself across the world and end all life. Many struggled against the god of death and he had many allies of his own. One day Nerull took a bride and raised her up to be a goddess at his side. But the goddess saw that life and death were a progression and that it was wrong that death overtake all and destroy life and so she overthrew Nerull and took his power and so the Raven Queen became the god of death.

But the allies of Nerull and even some of the other gods were jealous and coveted the Raven Queen's power and sought to oppose her. One of those was Orcus, demon prince of the undead. The undead are neither living nor dead and they are unnatural and not a part of the Raven Queen's order of progression. So she wages a war to wipe out the undead wherever they are found. Because Orcus was so closely tied to the god of death in ages past, his evil demons and undead horrors are still found in many parts of the Raven Queen's realm of Shadowfell.

In order to do battle with the demons and the undead, the Raven Queen forged a sword of magical power. It was a black blade scribed with runes of power and crackling with the mystical power of the Raven Queen herself. But she also imbued within the sword, life. And so the blade was carried into war against all that is unnatural and that violates the order of life and death and it's power grew. That blade is the Witchblade. In time the Witchblade grew in power and life until it became a god itself. A god with purpose. A god that offers a calling to something greater.

I was chosen by the Witchblade, as was Ruru, to wield it's power to destroy the unnatural and the undead and to save the world of the living. Now have our other companions been chosen as well and so too, have you, Slug. The Witchblade has chosen you to take up the cause to serve it's purpose and become a hero of the ages to save the world.

Long ago, a rift was torn between the world of the living and a dark part of the Shadowfell where Orcus holds sway with his undead. That rift was right here where this castle now stands. A great battle was fought and the forces of evil were driven back and the rift was sealed. To make sure the rift could never again be opened, this keep was built to guard it and powerful men stood sure to drive back any evil that came. But some evil seeped through and the men who guarded the rift fell prey to it and died and the keep fell into ruin and the purpose of it's building was forgotten.

Now the forces of Orcus are rising and are here to again open the rift and set loose evil that can destroy the world of the living. The Witchblade has summoned us here to stop them and bestowed on us what power it can. It may even be that the Witchblade itself is here somewhere, calling to us to take it up and fight to keep closed the gateway.

Now, Slug, you know why it is that I demanded your oath. You must become a true servant of the Witchblade so that you may be granted the power to become a hero and save the world. And if we succeed then perhaps the world will sing songs of the mighty goblin hero Slug, who helped to save the world and wielded the power of the Witchblade.

Kieran whispers a word of power and the shadows of the room seem to darken and swirl together, coalescing into a black runed blade in his hand that writhes with crackling purple energy.

This is only a fraction of the power of the Witchblade that I am granted but it is power that you too can be granted if you have true faith, Slug.

The one where we don't learn the secrets

After we rest at the burial site, we wake and head back to Winterhaven, discussing who the spy might be. Along the way, Boone croons a tune about the deeds we done did.

We arrive in Winterhaven to the accolade (singular) of the town guard and head off to see Lord Padraig.

We tell the Lord our story and he at first questions our sincerity, but quickly sees we are telling the truth. He writes us a letter of commendation. We also tell him of the burial and Douven relays his story of the Dragon cultists.

Upon further discussion, Lord Padraig offers the party 500 GP to gather evidence of what is happening at the Keep to the north. We agree and head to the tavern for food and to hear the bar room banter. Before we head out, Boone has a snit with the stablemaster. The steward calls the guard and after a few more minutes, the guards grab Boone by the scruff of his neck and toss him out of the inner keep gate. Boone lands in a heap at the front of Valthruns tower.

Boone stands up and after dusting himself off, we head to the tavern. We see familiar faces, none of them betray themselves to be a spy working for Kalarel, but one elf in a booth seems suspicious. We ask Salvana for some rooms and for any rumors about town and hwo the suspicious elf is in the corner. The elf woman is named Ninaron, a hunter, who usually is a loner. At the bar we run into the black smith, Thair Coalstriker and Ruru pays him off. Kieran strikes up a conversation with Thair and convinces him to draw him a crude map to Thairs ancestral home. Kieran surreptitiously examines the map to compare it to the charcoal message we found at the Kobold camp.

Kittelaar asks the flower seller Delphina Moongem about the keep and she reiterates her story about the goblins at the Keep. Unable to find our spy, we head up to bed.

We sleep well, and after waking with the dawn and the crowing of roosters, we head down to have some food. Boone asks about finding a tailor. Kieran wants to visit the smithy, Kittelaar wants to talk with Valthrun. We all head out to visit our various respective desires. Kittelaar wakes Valthrun and relays her tales of the Kobolds and the dragon burial. Kittelaar runs into Kieran as he heads over to the smith, where Kieran buys a shield. Boone heads to see the tailor and asks about a scrap of cloth that his "love must have lost when she ripped a piece off her garment in her haste to leave.". The tailor does not have a clue and Boone leaves.

Ruru heads to see Bairwin Wildarson at the mercantile. He tries to sell us 2 healing potions. Boone tries to sell the mirror. Kittelaar buys the potions, and Bairwin shows off the magic weapons he has, a Dagger, a Short Sword, and Arrows.

We finish at the shoppe and head to the tavern to discuss our next steps. We're no closer to finding the spy and decide that we should inform Lord Padraig of the sky in town. We all head to the inner keep to speak with Lord Padraig. We tell him that we believe there is a spy in town. We have not been able to locate the spy, but there is one among the townspeople.

After bickering amongst ourselves, we head out of town and circle around to the east until out of site and head north on the road. We discover the keep on the 3rd day out.

As we approach, the narrow track widens into a clearing, sprawling out to the edge of the woods. The ground is bare dirt, oddly, the wild forest has not reclaimed the ground. We see a staircase heading down into the ruins. We blindly rush in after seeing wagon tracks and small humanoid footprints. We head down and see a small chamber lit by torch light at the bottom of the stairs. The first chamber is 30’ x 30’ and has 4 columns evenly spaced. Across the chamber is a goblin with a bow. Boone strides forward, walking into 10’x10’-10’ deep pit. Another goblin comes from the left side, and Kieran pierces him with an eldritch blast, taking the goblins head off. Then the party really starts, with two more goblins appearing and attacking Boone.

Gayle shoots his bow, Ruru shoots his crossbow, and Kieran eldritch blasts another one. Kittelaar calls a sacred flame onto the one Kieran hit, driving more damage thru the goblins plate. Boone walks up and smack the goblin again.

The battle continues back and forth, and we’re worried that the noise will attract more of them. We are rewarded when two more goblins appear in plate with shields. We finally win the day and start to explore the ruin. We find mouldy foodstuffs. We find 43 GP and 51 SP. Tally, 4 Goblins, we take fingers to prove their existence.

We come upon an iron door, with dragons embossed on them, with the lintel inscribed “May they find peace.” Open the opening the door, a staircase leads down with a sour damp smell wafting up. A sense of dread overcomes us. This feels wrong so we decide to explore the rest of the level before moving downward. It's also wise that we don't leave enemies behind us… As we explore, we discover in the NE corner, a torture chamber / prison with 5 more goblins. We kill them all and find 55 GP and 50 SP. The slave driver torture master is wearing ornate hide armor. We discover a goblin in one of the cells. Boone interrogates the goblin Slug for no value.

The one with the jibberish being yakked about?

After gathering our senses in the morning, we head out again, this time making it afar afield, where we find many farms in ruins. Late on the first day, we come upon a great forest that looms darkly, scaring us back to the last burned out farm, taking shelter in the crumbling foundation of a farmhouse. We spend the night fitfully dreaming of Ents walking out of the forest and crushing us to death.

In the morning, we wake and head into the cheerful wood, none the wiser to the doom that lays ahead.

After our mid day snack of chili cheese fries we come upon a stream that burbles and chides us for nearly missing the dozens of Kobold tracks that lie on the streambed. We follow the tracks downstream for a while until we hear the faint roar of a waterfall in the distance. We also notice a path leaves the stream, heading roughly downstream over land. Kittelaar ventures to the brink of the waterfall to see a band Kobolds playing Twister inside a ring of Mastadon tusks. Boone, believing he's the king of the wild frontier, (we are still undecided on whether we should tell him that the king of the wild frontier is Davy Crockett) heads down the portage path and engages the Kobolds in dialog while the rest of the Misfits stay on top of the waterfall, ready to attack from afar.

Boone makes his entrance and tries to determine if these Kobolds are friend or foe before attacking unprovoked. He soon learns that these Kobilds are like all the other Kobolds in the world as they attack him.

While Boone fights the direct Kobold attacks, Brona, RuRu, Kieran, and Kittelaar attack without mercy from above, decimating the pack.

After the battle, we examine the ring where a Dalkonshield Kobold was attempting to perform some kind of ritual. We feel a surge of energy when we enter the ring, like some kind of blessing is bestowed upon us. Sadly. the blessing leaves us one we depart the circle.

We look for tropes and find one behind the base of the waterfall – a hidden cavern.

As we are about to enter the cave, another pack of filthy Kobolds attack us without mercy. We kite them out of the cave, picking them off one by one and just as we are thinking we have them, a hobgoblin and a Kobold shaman enter the battle, testing our battle skills. A few more moments and the Misfits take the day. We search the bodies and finding a key, and a note:

“My spy in Winterhaven suggests we keep an eye out for visitors to the area. It probably does not matter. In a few more days, I’ll completely open the rift. Then Winterhaven’s people will serve as food for those Lord Orcus sends to do my bidding.”

We find some gold and silver and proceed to search the cave finding a chest – low and behold the key fits. The chest contains a lot of gold and dwarven half plate armor that glows brightly. Kittelaar questions the mechanics of the half plate, wondering how it fits her ample figure so well. It must be magic.

We spend the night in the cave.

Exp 220 - Gold 82 - Each

Dwarven Half Plate +1 – Kittelaar

In the morning, damp from the spray of the waterfall we argue briefly whether we should warn Winterhaven, or find Douven Staul or the burial site. Logic overcomes the duty overcomes honor and we head off to find Kittelaars old mentor.

After most of a day we come upon a great rise of what appears to be a crater. We see two lone Drakes guarding whatever is within and we approach to see several cultists digging in a pit at the center of the crater. The drakes rush us and attack and full fledged mayhem ensues, where most of the party falls from the psychotic ravings of the cultist priest. Kittelaar rushes the priest, praying to her own deity that she can murder this foul creature before he does her in.

The rest of the party quickly dispatch the drakes, but the cultist men are quite well equipped, attacking with fury. The cultist priest gets lucky and takes a chunk out of Kittelaar, and she falls. Boone rushes towards the priest with vengeance. The cultist men press forward, and take Thomasin down. Ruru and Keiran rush towards the priest, fleeing the melee with the cultists. One by one Ruru and Kieran take the cultists out with ranged attacks.

Just as things are looking up, the priest takes Boone down, but not before he spent a moment grappling Kittelaar, bringing her back to consciousness. Kittelaar reaches out and touches the priest, killing him in an instant, as the remaining cultist men are dispatched.

Panting and badly wounded, we patch up the dying and look around. The bodies contain some gold and the priest has what appears to be a magic ring. There is a tent and tarp on the side of the crater and we head over to examine. Under the tarp is a body. Kittelaar is dismayed to see her old mentor bound and gagged. We release him and learn that the ring is a +1 ring of protection, from his wife. He bequeaths it to us since we rescued him. He tells us about the cultists and about the bones in the pit. It looks like it was a battle between the empire and the legions of undead. In the tent we find a magic mirror, but we cannot determine what it does quite yet. We decide to rest here and head to Winterhaven in the morning.

The one where the party was convinced to start anew.

While spending another lonely night in the pub, Kittelaar overhears that her mentor Douven Staul has been missing for a few months. Staul, the man who trained Kittelaar and her friends RuRu and Kieran for a life of adventure, left three months ago and headed for Winterhaven. Douven had apparently discovered the location of a dragon’s barrow not far from Winterhaven but his return is long overdue and he could be in big trouble. Kittelaar decides to go find her old Mentor.

Her merry band of casters runs into a pair of stalwart fighter types, Brona and Boone. Ruru overhears them discussing their quest to find an ancient artifact, a Rod of Ruin. Sounds dangerous. We decide that pairing our forces will increase our chances of survival, and we head to Winterhaven.

On the road to Winterhaven we discover a band of fiesty Kobolds, led by two stout Kobold Dalkonsheilds, who really mess us up. We survive the battle and make it to town, but both of the fighters are unconscious as we stagger through the gates.

The gatekeeper suggests we try the temple to see about healing our fallen compatriots. We head there and meet Sister Linora. She gives us a warm welcome, but cannot provide much help other than to suggest we speak with the Lord of the Keep and tell him of our adventures. We head there next, gaining an audience with Lord Padraig. We tell him of the threat the Kobolds pose to the town, and he sympathizes with us, but raises his hands in frustration. He doesn't have the resources to respond himself. He suggests that we do the work for him, and he will pay us 100 GP to clear the surrounding lands of Kobolds. We agree a little too eagerly, as Lord Padraig continues by saying there is a stronghold of Kobolds to the southeast that needs to be eradicated. Resigned to our commitment, we demand half payment up front with a grumble and head on our way.

It's early afternoon, so we decide to explore the rest of the town to ask about Douven, and any leads on him. On our way into the Lords Manor, we passed a smithy, and that's our next stop.

A dwarf named Thair Coalstriker owns the village smithy. He has a variety of weapons and armor, and Ruru decides to use a foreign process, something called kradit, to purchase a chain shirt. Kittelaar looks around the smithy for armor of her size, but Coalstriker is either better at hiding his true talents, or he's really ill stocked. We ask about Douven but the smithy hasn't seen him. We ask about a general store, and Thair suggests we try Bairwin’s Grand Shoppe. We mozy on to the shoppe.

Bairwin Wildarson is the shoppe proprietor, and he has most of what an adventurer needs, albeit his prices are sharp. He remembered meeting Douven, and had nothing worrisome to say, just that his gold was good and he was pleasant enough. We were surprised that learn that Bairwin had a couple of potions of healing in his supplies, too bad we couldn't afford them. He suggests we check for healing herbs at the town market. We make our purchases and we were directed to go visit the sage Valthrun in the tower at the center of the town. Before we head there, we decide to visit the market square.

We run smack into Delphina Moongem, who is selling wildflowers from her cart. She has seen goblins around the ruined keep visible in the foothills to the north. We ask her about healing herbs and she suggests we visit the pig pen and get some Kingsfoil.

We take tally. Dragon barrow to the south, ruined keep to the north with Goblins, Kobolds to the South and East. We came from the west, and can't go back that way. All directions appear to lead to certain death. We might as well play along.

We head to the tower.

We look at the building and it's got a long string hanging down from a window three stories up. We ring the bell and wait. And wait.

Valthrun is like most cantankerous wiseacres, he knows more than he leads on and replies to most of our questions with riddles. But his ears perk up when Boone mentions seeking an artifact from the past, the rod of ruin. Valthrun hurries us on our way, saying he must do some research on the old keep and will inform us the next time we meet. Before we go, he shows mercy on us, granting us a few dusty scrolls and apotion from his archives. Scroll of Magic Missile, Scroll of Cure Wounds, Healing Potion.

We head to the inn to get some rooms and ask for some info on our old Master Douven. The innkeeper is names Salvana Wrafton. Salvana is friendly and open, quick with a smile and a warm welcome. She tells us that Douven was here and he stayed only a short time before heading out into the wilderness. We get retire to some sleep and rise early to head out. But we spend a great deal of the night bickering about what we should do first, find Douven, or eradicate the Kobolds. As the last of the wax from the lone candle on the bureau is consumed, we finally decide to enumerate the Kobolds first, and then go find Douven.

We head out early, and immediately come across another band of Kobolds and Dalkonshields who bring us to the brink of a TPK. Kittelaar is dismayed to see all her compatriots fall around her as she musters the last of her strength to literally run away. The Kobolds chase after her, giving her fallen brethren a chance to regroup. Finally, in a twist of fate that is nearly game like, the tables turn and the kobolds are decimated.

Wasted and wounded, we head back to the safety of Winterhaven and Valthrun is at the gate looking for us. He tells us that he's searched his archives and anxiously informs us about the Keep on the Shadowfell north of town.

"The keep was built by the old empire, Nerath, just as I suspected. Not to watch for marauders, though. No, no! It was built over the site of a rift to the Shadowfell, a place of darkness and shadows! Not all of the Shadowfell is evil, but this rift apparently connects to an unholy sanctuary of Orcus, the demon lord of the undead. Skeletons, ghouls, and stranger, fouler creatures crawled through the opening into the light of day. The empire destroyed the undead and then sealed the rift and built a keep over the location to watch over it and contain its threat. I thought that was the end of the story. Now, I’m not so sure."

The one with a sideline adventure to help the Harpell family

Momentarily teleported back to Neverwinter, we hear of a call for a group of adventurers to recover a lost amulet from the crypt of Lucius Harpell.

We take the challenge. After a few days journey, we enter a cave and find an entrance to a crypt where we see a copper statue that wards us off. There is a engraving on a plaque at the base speaking of great doom and death to any who plunder or pillage the crypt.

BB and Obin explore the other passage, and upon opening a sarcophagus, awaken a mummy. Connor refusing to believe the dead can be animated, assumes that the bandages are blowing in the wind and deftly slices them into smaller bandages, until we are left with a small pile of bones and ripped bandages.

After vanquishing the mummy, the sarcophagus is searched and a rotting leather pouch is found containing 200GP. Hidden among the bandage remnants are three gems worth 50 GP each, a emerald, a sapphire and a ruby. Also lying on the bottom is a sword and scabbard. The scabbard is made of leather and wood, with two draconic runes that say L.H. A gleaming shortsword is contained within. It feels magical, but we don't take the time to determine that for certain. The mummy (sorry, bandages), has a gold necklace worth 200 GP.

Brie being the ever inquisitive, takes the cube held in the palm, which causes the arm of the statue to raise up (nothing to hold it down) and a huge ring of lightning bolts erupt from the wall, hitting Brie and BB. The lightning bounces off BB, into Connor and Monocle, who each feel singed and possibly betrayed.

At the same time, a grating rock on rock sound is heard and a stone wall closes off the escape path. We are locked into the crypt. We search and find a recess in the wall, that appears to be the same size as the cube from the statue. Brie takes the cube and hands it to BB, who places it in the wall, which opens the door to the only path out. Or so we hope.

As we enter the pathway, the walls are frescoed of scenes of torture. Oddly enough, the victims are reminiscent of our party. More than reminiscent, there is some foul magic here. The victims in the frescoes are our party. Is this some portent of things to come, or some parlour trick of a tired old mage?

At the end of the torture hall, is a three foot pedestal with an obsidian cube box. Each face has a brass plate with a rune on it. The runes are draconic. The runes are EMPONE. Our residnet wordsmith Brie quickly rearranges the letters into OPENME. We try to open the box, tracing the runes, kissing the runes, tapping the runes with fingers and sword, saying the runes and words in Draconic. BB opens the box with Knock spell and within is a copper sheet with the following written on it:

Black does not look up to Red

White rests not on the right

Red rests not on the left

Red and blue reside higher than green

Black resides near, but not at the top.

We spend a great deal of time trying to decipher the puzzle while Monocle and BB search for more hidden doors. Finally, we discover a secret door next to the pillar. Upon opening the door, we see a room which contains a checked floor of blue and white tiles. Each blue tile is a trap. In the last trap put is a ladder down to the next level.

We explore on, attempting to avert death, all the while wondering what we've gotten ourselves into.

The one where Marshall, Will, and Holley, go on a routine expedition

We make it to the foothills. most have been soft and rolling, but we suddenly see a jagged rock outcrop, a larger foothill with a cleft slicing into the bosom of the earth. We can see a path that leads into the cleft, which oddly resembles the map we found.

The map is written in Draconic, which reads like a bad B movie plot.

We start down into the valley and see a dinosaur corpse, an allosaur. Flies are still buzzing around the corpse. Wesley examines the corpse and takes an allosaur claw.

A deeper examination shows us the remnants of a battle, with three different sets of tracks of some humanoids leading into the valley.

We come across 3 bounty hunters who are tending one who is wounded. These are true mercenaries. An Orc, a human, and a Dragon Born. After a bit of trash talk, Connor threatens them enough that their hand is forced and they attack. They want the bounty for themselves and Connor is having none of it.

As we pick them off, Connor continues to insult them. We disable the Dragon Born and the Human, and tie them up.

We interrogate the captives and they tell us of a female necromancer that has invited many undead to join her. We all groan "DUH!" and ask for more information. After much discussions, we convince the Human and Dragon Born to join our happy band.

We continue on and see the cliff side rendered by some creatures that erupted from the walls. Some holes are 6 feet tall, and some are 30 feet tall. There are a dozen holes on one side of the cliff.

Monocle turns into a giant spider, climbs up and looks into a hole to see the outline of a skeleton when suddenly the wall erupts and an ankylosaurus skeleton falls to the floor of the chasm. It stands up and attacks. We quickly dispatch the ankylosaurus, which like the previous dinosaur, is undead.

We come to a fork and take the southerly path. After some moments, the paths converge and we come upon a chest sitting on the ground with a beam of wood about 20 feet above the chest. The beam sticks out of the wall about 20 feet. As Connor approaches, a green gem is spied on the ground. Wesley approaches to investigate also. Connor in his haste to open the chest, trips the trap and we are put into a deep slumber.

We awaken to find ourselves bound and hanging from the beam. We hear a silken voice of a female mocking us for trespassing in the valley. An allosaurus rushes towards us and 4 pteranodons fly down at us.

While we struggle to dispatch the undead dinosaurs, victory is finally ours and we hear the woman cackle something about leaving her valley before we perish. She walks away and Connor rushes off after her climbing the stairs that lead up to the top where she stood. Among the remains of the undead dinosaurs, we discover another two gems, a blue and a yellow.

We climb the stairs and examine an altar. Wesley places the gems into the altar and we hear a rumbling and trap doors open beneath our feet and we tumble down into the abyss.

When we finally make it to the bottom, we see a large iron door to the side of the chamber. We rest and hear the woman cackle her womanly gripes about leaving her. We also hear a grinding of bones as all around us they start to assemble into undead warhorses. We make short work of the warhorses and a t-rex comes and bites Connor nearly in half.

Monocle cures Connor and as she does, the T-rex succeeds in biting her in half and she falls.

Connor taunts the DM and trips the mechanism to lower the gate to crush the t-rex.

The one where the tard fairies really cause havoc

After recovering from the Numeral Uno Tower, we continue making our way along the mapped path to find the Master. In the distance we hear what we think is Wesley chiming about something. When we get closer, we see that our hearing needs checking. What we see is a middling aged woman, scolding her goat in the middle of the road. Her cries of anguish remind us of the cries poor Wesley makes when he gets attacked.

The thick tree cover tricked our ears and our eyes. We turn back toward each other, we find our selves in the opulent foyer on a baroque theater. We all show confusion and start taking look around, we can see that in the near past this was a very beautiful place, but needs some TLC. We hear hooves in the distance and see a satyr walking quickly towards us. I wonder if the old woman has tricked us.

He approaches and thanks us for finally arriving and says that the hero is finally here so the story can begin. Connor Seanery abides the satyr, saying he is ready for the performance and volunteers his services. Monocle looks at him, and thinks “Goats?”

The satyr claps twice and Connor vanishes.

Satyr says that the show can benefit from some “flare”. He suggests that we improvise any flourishes to enhance the performance. He then goes onto warn us that if we wish to join Connor on stage, we must stay until the end of the act. I quote, "If we step onstage, the bard will take us. We must not step off the stage until the end of the act."

Then the satyr points at Monocle and claps twice again and then she disappears also.

Eirwen and Lux are left looking at the stairs where the audience members are taking their seats. Lux climbs the stairs to see the stage and is still trying to make sense of what is happening. Erin goes to the balcony and Lux approaches the apron of the stage.

——

Connor and Monocle look around to see peasants and merchants in a walled courtyard, The noise banging on the gate makes the villagers flee. It sounds like a heavy battering ram is being used on the gate and the fear of the crowd is palpable. Monocle tries to convince Connor that commanding the audience from the height of a tower would be agood idea. Connor runs to the nearest tower and Monocle follows.

——

As the curtain rises, Eirwen and Lux see some goblin like creatures run onstage propping up cutouts of burly humanoid figures. They watch curiously as Connor steps up on some flimsy wooden sets of what is supposed to be a castle gate and tower. Lux calls down divine blessings as a spotlight turns on, shining on Connor and Monocle.

——

Connor and Monocle feel blessed with divine inspiration as a thundering rending sound is heard when the gates are torn asunder. The twanging of bows are mixed with the yelling of the defenses as the archers shoot the initial invaders.

——

Eirwen and Lux see a small goblin run up to the “front” invader cutout and push it over and thru the gate. Eirwen and Lux are perplexed at the seriousness that Connor and Monocle show for this haphazard "play" that is being performed.

——

Connor races to the top of the tower and sees the invaders carrying spears and bows. He decides to call out to Monocle to say, “the big guy is mine!” Connor feels like he recognizes the weapon of the leader as his fathers lance. He climbs out to onto the wall, taking cover from the invaders.

——

Lux smirks to himself, thinking this is jolly good theatre. He can be heard muttering “Bravo” under his breath. The gremlins run onstage, moving the cutouts closer to Monocle. Lux sends a fireball towards the gremlins and cutouts near Monocle, burning the wooden cutouts.

The ushers are not amused and come down to the apron of the stage, grab Lux by the scruff of his neck and toss him onstage in a heap.

——

Monocle hears the invaders clank up in black armor and turns to the door of the tower when a roar of flames draws her attention back to the invaders. Monocle sees a fireball come sailing down from the keep wall to smash among them invaders. The invaders seem undeterred and she can see anger flaring in their eyes. Monocle calls upon the power of nature to cause her image to blur to the world and dashes into the tower after Connor. Connor jumps down onto one of the invaders, snapping the mans neck where it is weakest. He slashes out, taking down two other invaders, and stabs the leader before rushing to climb the crates in the middle of the courtyard.

The leader turns, climbs the crates and attacks Connor, saying “I should have finished you off as a whelp, a mistake I will shortly remedy.” He brandishes the lance menacingly, but the crates begin to buckle under his weight and he misses.

Monocle hears the twang of two crossbows shooting off in the distance, informing her that the battle is larger than she expected. She thinks she recognizes Lux, wondering where he came from. She also hears another bow behind her, and the invader takes the arrow and collapses at her feet. Lux show himself for a moment and ducks back behind the wagon.

Monocle casts a flaming sphere between the two ranged invaders and heads back downstairs to the entrance of the tower.

——

Eirwen watches with amused amazement as the gremlin stagehands rush about setting the cutout figures in various locations. As she looks backstage, she sees the bric-a-brac of back stage props and set pieces. She see gremlins playing cards, while the satyr is directing other gremlins to tasks of moving and setting cutouts and set pieces.

Eirwen sees costumes, props, and two little gremlins wearing costumes, one has a cloak and is carrying a broom, and the other wearing a mop head as a wig and oversized dolls dress. Eirwen dons a lion costume, and jumps onstage.

——

Monocle and Lux are amazed to see a manticore fly in and land by the two remaining archers, attacking them, killing one and dropping the other to his knees before the tail spike skewers his face.

Connor slashes with vehemence at the giant brute standing before him. He laughs uproariously and flips over the brute to land behind him and attack again. The brute throws down his shield and double hands the lance to attack Connor wildly. Connor staggers under the blows, feeling the betrayal of the family blade as it bites into his flesh.

Lux whistles a oddly familiar tune.

Monocle runs the flaming sphere into the brute, and advances on him.

The manticore bites and claws the brute who collapses and utters his dying breath, “You’re already too late.”.

We all turn to hear the maniacal laughter of a old figure who is flying away with what is no other than the princess under his arm, and he exclaims that we fell into his trap perfectly. As we look at him vanishing into the distance, we feel the rush of a large curtain closing behind us and the muffled applause from behind the curtain as Act 1 ends.

——

The satyr ushers us offstage, commending our performance. He asks us to liven it up a bit. We watch the gremlins setting the stage for act 2. We see buckets of water in a line, and some twine laying on the buckets. We see the mop head that the gremlin wore. Monocle casts locate object on the robe of the mage. We hang around waiting for the show to resume.

——

The curtain rises as the audience hushes.

From onstage, the scene revealed is a river beside a tower of the wizard. Connor rides a manticore and is talking with a red shirted squire riding a horse beside him. As they speak, s shimmering forcefield appears between the hero and tower

——

Two goblins are holding a streamer between them, waving it to make it appear like it is shimmering. Monocle calls the gusting wind of nature to knock one of the gremlins nearly offstage, causing him to drop the streamer.

——

Connor sees that the magical barrier has fallen and advances toward the tower.

The manticore drops Connor off on the ground, and flys up to the tower window, seeing twelve identical crystal spheres. This is the study of the wizard, crammed with books and other stuff.

Connor tosses the lance to his squire, draws his swords, advances on the door and kicks it open.

The room is empty.

——

The audience chuckles as the hero makes a grand entrance into an empty room while a sorrowful trombone echoes in the distance.

Lux paces back and forth watching Eirwen in the lion costume, waiting for a moment to cast guidance on her.

——

The manticore notices that two of the spheres are dustier than the others.

——

Monocle casts daylight on the shooter sphere and Eirwen grabs it just as Connor walks into the room.

——

Connor searches the room also and finds a key and leaps onto the back of the manticore. She glares at him, but carries him safely back to the ground and his squire.

Maniacal laughter fills the air as Wilhelm the squire screams and falls from the tower window.

As Connor peers into the palantir, he sees the princess in a cage and a giant silver claw falls before the lights go out and the curtain falls. Act 2 is done.

——

The satyr returns and praising our dramatic influences obviously excited by our involvement. Lux and Monocle exchange knowing glances. We see the gremlins clear the stage and bring a washtub of water on stage. One of the gremlins dons the dinosaur costume and climbs into the tub and hunkers down. The mop headed gremlin holds the crossed sticks in front of himself just upstage of the washtub.

The curtain rises to show the gray painted walls of what must represent a cave. On walks Connor. He looks to have an appearance similar to the Wizard.

Lux and Monocle hatch a plan to push the cutouts onto the stage to have a army of red shirts. We take some half dozen cutouts and puts red shirts on them and carry them over stage left.

——

Connor sees the entrance to a huge cave. Connor removes the visage of the Wizard and heads into the cave.

——

Lux decides to enter the play, and advances into the cave, instructing 3 of the scouts to follow Connor, and 3 to follow him.

——

Connor rings the doorbell by placing the lance into the water. A silvery dragon rises out of the water, intimating his presence onto the room. A roar is heard throughout the cave.

——

Monocle watches the gremlin sitting in the wash tub stand up, the water dripping off his dinosaur costume. He “roars” and Monocle giggles under her breath and casts fairie fire on the gremlin. Monocle crosses backstage and sees one of the gremlins is about to go onstage with a bag of flour. She slides her staff in front, tripping the gremlin who spills his flour on the edge of the stage.

——

The red shirts shoot arrows at the dragon and miss.

——

Lux uses the divine inspiration to guide a bolt of radiant damage towards the dragon.

——

Connor throws off his cloak, striking a pose and yells out “You overgrown hunch-backed toad!”.

——

The dragon flies across stage, landing in front of the red shirts.

——

Monocle sees the dinosaur costumed gremlin run across the stage, and stand in front of the cutouts. Monocle convinces one of the gremlins to trade a goodberry for the orange he was swinging about. Monocle eats the orange. Sadly another gremlin was tossing around a bag of tacks and rushes onstage.

——

The dragon swings his tail about, spikes flying out and piercing 2 of the red shirts.

The dragon rushes two of the red shirts, who shit themselves to death.

——

Monocle trips the thumbtack gremlin just as he comes offstage, forcing him to spill the remaining thumbtacks offstage.

——

The red shirts attack a third time, and as the try to run past, one gets eaten by the dragon.

——

A gremlin runs onstage throwing bag of flour next to Lux, causing a fog cloud.

——

Lux causes the dragon another bout of radiant damage.

——

Connor rummages around his pouch for the key he deftly stole from the tower, opening the cage and removing the princess.

——

The dragon rushes past Lux, who reaches out and smacks the dragon as he saunters by.

——

Monocle sees a gremlin run onstage with an electric eel and dips it in the wash tub. As the gremlin runs offstage, Monocle burst the bag with the eel inside and kills the eel just as another gremlin runs onstage and pours more water into the washtub.

——

The dragon raises the water level in the cave.

——

Lux casts scorching ray on the dragon without his targeting computer and is covered in the viscera of dragon guts and gore.

——

Connor walks up to the gremlin and slices him in two and the curtain drops.

End of Act 3.

——

We find ourselves outside the baroque theatre with the goat composed and collected. He speaks with calm gratitude “Thank you for your performance.” He hands us a penny whistle and says, if you needs us, call us with this whistle.

The one with the adventure by numbers

As we travel the long path towards the mountain, the magic seems to be stronger and suddenly we see a tower along the path. It's a stout 5 story tower that's literally only 10 feet wide. THe only striking feature are the windows on the cardinal points of the compass. Many of the windows have chains hanging between the window above or below.

Sitting outside is a half orc. He appears as stumped as we are about the tower. Who lived here? Why was it abandoned? What's up with the chains? The tower looks like it's been abandoned for a long time, but there are fresh tracks running into the door and down towards the river that is seen in the distance.

Monocle and Eirwen exchange greetings with Cobash, the half orc, and he tells us the story of how he ended up here. Cobash says that he heard a tale about some treasure that was being looted from an abandoned mages tower. He decided to go exploring himself to see what he can see, but the tracks he followed to the tower are not just humanoid tracks. There are also giant tracks mixed in with the humanoid footprints.

We agree to help Cobash for a portion of the loot and enter the tower.

The first room has 5 cages hanging from the ceiling and lots of refuse strewn about. The cages contains the mouldering remains of what looks like an adventuring party. There is also a large numeral 1 carved into the floor.

As we explore the room, a flickering orb of softly glowing light appears and follows us around. We head ot of the room and deeper into the tower. It becomes immediately apparent that the insides of the tower are much larger than the outsides. As we enter the next room, a second orb appears and there is a large numeral 2 on the floor. We continue to explore, and see a long hallway with many rooms and passages leading away. We look into each room and can see the rooms all have numerals carved into the floor.

We've determined that there is some quest that requires a collection of the orbs being gathered in sequential order. What happens after that, we're not sure so we trundle on.

We come across a room with a giant, who immediately attacks us. We fight valiantly until Monocle goes down, and then we scamper and run, forcing to enter rooms out of sequential order. Once we do that, the orbs all vanish.

We also realize that the halls loop back on themselves, and unless we pay very close attention, we will not be able to get back out of the tower. It seems magically boobytrapped.

We race back to the entrance, get an orb and quickly retrace our steps to get thru the maze of rooms as fast as possible. We end up on the top of the tower, where there is a bell, book, and candle on top of an altar.

One of the apparitions we saw in room 13 told us of a ritual that we need to do when we've collected all the orbs. On the top of the tower, we begin the ritual and right as we start, the river rises up some appendages and demands we release the magic to it. We are offered wishes and while we are deliberating on what to do, a huge water elemental appears, and demands we release the magic. Not knowing if this is the lesser evil, we agree to let the elemental take what he wants, and he finally does so with a momentous splash.

Soaking wet, we climb back thru the rooms to get to room 1, where we can finally outside.

We make it outside and reunite with the party. Cobash decides to go find some bunnies to play with.

What's dead and buried should be left alone

Note: This is a log of 9/3 & 9/4

As we left last our band of merry adventurers, they had killed off a few undead that were conspiring to plot how to plan a takeover of the world of the living. We decide that before we head off to follow the map to the mountain, we will explore the temple.

We venture in and find the temple in a similar state as to how the house/orphanage was; in good repair, but unoccupied. As we search the temple, we climb up to the altar and see a crowd of parishioners of ghostly design. They appear only when viewed from the altar, and appear to be vestiges of long lost souls. A search discovers a trigger mechanism upon the altar that reveals a book of magical processes of necromantic origin. As we delve further into the temple, we discover more books, but we can only guess as to the true purpose of the temple. The book is driven by some sort of unnatural blood rite, when the pages are dripped with blood, they reveal hidden text.

We surmise that we would need the blood contained in the veins of 4 stalwart warriors to reveal all the hidden text within the book. We take the book with us, knowing that if it fell into the wrong hands, it could be used for eveil intent.

We move out to the lichyard and examine the crypts, only to find another invitation in the crypt of some high born women. The invitation is identical to the one we discovered on the corpse of the wraith.

In the largest crypt, we discover a staircase leading down into a set of catacombs that appear to be magically enhanced to thwart tomb robbers. We decide to rest before we begin fully exploring the catacombs.

We explore a little of the catacombs, only to discover that they seem to change every few minutes. Where there was once a corridor, there is now a blank wall, and vice versa. We become somewhat confused and get turned around, and run into a number of undead, all while Connor Seanary complains that we are robbing the tombs, and we should be moving on to fight the brigands or something like that. It's possible he's just afraid of the dark.

Throughout the remaining part of the adventure, we discover a few magic items, a few scrolls, some gems and gold, and a friendly spirit that guides us to rob his tomb, tells us the he also got an invitation to some undead meetup, and that we shouldn't dally any longer, but should get to the mountain before it's too late and mess up the meet up.

The band of misfit toys got to sing about working out

Before we lock ourselves into the office, we search the remainder of the house. We finally sleep, not knowing where Bibi went. In the morning, we search again without any trace of Bibi. We do find a note by the cauldron, in scrawling lengthy script.

BRB – J/K – BB

Next to the note is a empty potion bottle for a fly spell.

It begins to dawn on us that Bibi has flown the coop. Bibi took a long walk off a short pier. Bibi has ditched us for a better gang.

With out heads hanging low, we gather up our things and head out to examine the cemetery. On the way, we hear a whistling and see what looks like a human walking towards us. He notices us and stops whistling. He bows deeply and introduces himself as Connor Shell Shord Shawnery. He hails from the sword coast, where he dances with the stars and apprehends brigands and the like. He has a thick accent and asks for 25% of the treasure for his acting services. We tell him his acting isn't needed by us right now, but if he accepts an equal share of the treasure for being a Shell Shord, we can use him in our unlikely band.

Introductions all around, we congratulate ourselves and banter about a little job we were asked to do, find out where the zombies are coming from and put a stop to them. We head to the temple and see a lichyard just beyond, with a 15’ high wall surrounding the yard. We notice the lichyard is overgrown and unkempt. We look through the gate and see jumble of headstones and a tangle of bushes, burial crypts, headstones, and vines. Above the gate is written: "Welcome – not all who wander are alive". The mish mash of stones, brambles, roots, vines, blocks our view to less than 25 feet. This place is creepy in the day, we don't want to be here at night.

We look towards the gate and Eirwen attempts to unlock the gate without success. The insufferable Connor opens the locked gate with one hand while diddling his mustache. Connor strides in confidently, heading deeper into the overgrowth. The daylight wanes a little and the air becomes still with anticipation. We continue on and see the side of a mausoleum, covered in relief of a hunting party, pursuing what appears to be collared slaves. Monocle grabs some vines, trying to climb to the top of the mausoleum but falls back to the ground. The vines here are rotten and aged and smell sickly, like recent death. Connor tries to climb up and cannot succeed in his acrobatic acting ability. Lili throws a grappling hook up and climbs up to the top. Lilis' view is obscured by the trees and vines tangled between them.

Connor walks around the crypt, heading to the ‘door’, which depicts a man with a coiled whip in his hand. The sculpting looks worn with age, but the face looks more like it was damaged, and the weathering has aged the damaged areas equally with the rest of the stone. The crypt looks undisturbed. We leave it in peace.

We continue down the patch, and come upon a second crypt, which depicts women keeping house, doing domestic chores. Upon closer look, there appears to be woman working over a cauldron that has hands floating in it. Another scene depicts a woman tanning a hide that looks like a human torso with tattoos. The ‘door’ has a woman with a circlet on her head. Like the first crypt, the face has been chiseled away. The weathering indicates that the vandalism happened very long ago. The crypts appear to be carved some long time ago, at least hundreds of years ago.

We see boot prints heading off towards the center of the lichyard.

Wesley knocks on the crypt door, and the light dims and the wind kicks up and blows leaves at the base of the door. As the wind dissipates the light brightens and we wonder if that was a coincidence or if some spirit was awoken. Lili pounded again on the slab and from within the crypt we heard a shrieking sound that chills us to our core. We don't really want to wake the dead. Connor pounds on the slab, nothing else occurs so we head on.

We come upon a third mausoleum carved with children playing games, but upon closer examination, the children are playing catch with a skull. Another scene depicts the children torturing animals. The “door” has a nursery scene and a girl standing over a crib, holding something in her hand, but whatever it is, that was chiseled away long ago. Lili pushed on the slab, trying to open the crypt. Once again, we’re unsuccessful so we move on.

We come upon clearing right behind the temple and see 4 figures. 2 humans are talking with subservience to one dressed in all black. Or so we think it is dressed. As we look closer, the voice it uses has a familiar stress to it and we recognize the telltale signs of a Wraith.

True malice incarnate, a wraith is incorporeal and seeks to quench all life. The creature is suffused with negative energy, and its mere passage through the world leaves nearby plants blackened and withered.

The 4th figure is unknown to us, but frightens us at a distance. It is a translucent humanoid with a twisted face holding an evil scowl. Its eyes burn with a hellish red glow.

Connor advances asking – "Who goes there?!" The wraith says in a whispering voice, “come closer.” Connor stands his ground and the battle begins. “Kill them”, the wraith whispers, and the humans start to turn to attack. Connor dashes up behind the humans, taking one down and slashing the other one, dancing away from the melee.

Eirwen shoots her bow at the wraith, causing less damage than she expected, her arrows cannot bite with their full effect on the incorporeal creature. A last standing human points his finger at Connor and a bolt of radiant energy flys wildly, barely missing Connor. Monocle calls down lightning into the group, killing the other human. As the 4th creature moves towards us, Monocle recognizes it as a Darnoc, Another 2 Darnocs come out of the grave yard, surrounding us. The Darnoc closest to us mucks with our minds, making a few of us bicker uncontrollably with each other.

Wesley has a come to jesus moment, gets religion and shows his lawful neutrality. Lili is starting to yell at Wesley and Eirwen starts yelling at Lili. Lili hits the darnoc in front of him again, pulling out his undead liver and the Darnoc falls. Lili insults everyone with childish abandon, but she focuses enough to attack another Darnoc, who she puts prone. Wesley tries to dominate the prone Darnoc and tries to attack the other standing Darnoc.

Connor commands the group (calm emotions) to pull themselves together. The group calms and he looks sternly at them.

Eirwen draws her bow back after her head clears and takes a shot at the Darnoc but misses.

The wraith calls upon the spirits of the netherworld and reanimates one of the dead humans into a a specter, which walks up to Connor to attack, but misses, instead peeing its pants with fear of the mighty bard.

Monocle calls lighting again, hitting the wraith in the distance.

The Darnocs become incorporeal, pooping their pants with strain.

The wraith raises the other human as a specter, and moves towards the temple wall.

Lili hits the specter in front of him with his magic hands and feet, tickling the specter and making him groan.

Wesley points his finger at the wraith and two specters, bane befalls the wraith and a specter.

Connor attacks the specter who attacked him, releasing a blazing set of blows, slicing the specter with less damage than he expected.

Erin shoots her bow at the Darnoc, piercing it as the arrow sails through the air.

The specters attack Connor, touching him in inappropriate locations.

Monocle calls lightning a third time, striking the wraith again.

The Darnocs attack, one hitting Eirwen with critical accuracy.

Wesley opens his mouth and Eirwen feels more pain.

The wraith moves to attack Lili, missing as he stumbles into range.

Lili attacks the Darnoc yet again, unleashing a fury of blows on his groin. The magical damage finally taking it’s toll on the Darnoc. Lili turns and hits the wraith, dashing away to the safety of Eirwens skirts.

Wesley has Roger his familiar carry his shadow over to Connor, dropping Wesleys shadow onto Connor. Connor feels the comfort of the shadow embrace him and smiles with a gleam in his eye.

As the Darnoc approaches, Eirwen drops her bow and slashes with her short sword. She disengages and sidles up to Monocle. Power to the women.

Monocle calls the heavens down a 4th time, inflicting lighting damage again, this time on the Darnoc.

The Darnoc rushes Eirwen, hitting her for damage that stings to her core.

Lili rushes up the backside of the wraith, hitting the wraith upside the head, ringing the ears of those around her.

Wesley wonders why he ever felt like he was alone in the world. He smiles at the wraith and comments that he needs better friends.

Connor struts his stuff, hitting the specter to his left as it vaporizes in a puff of ectoplasm. Connor turns to the other specter, vaporizing the other one. Connor then rushes the backside of the wraith alongside Lili.

Eirwen leans into the face of the last standing Darnoc, slicing and disengaging.

The lighting from Monocle, hits the last standing Darnoc, which explodes in a vaporized cloud of goo.

Lili looks at the wraith and it falls over dead.

With the undead dead again, we loot the human bodies and find 50 GP and that each of them have a tattoo on the center of their chest. It appears to be a hand erupting from the earth. On one of the acolytes there is a map, the leads from the mountain to the village.